Messages

1486

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Think this letter will stop their harassment?

« on: May 03, 2012, 08:20:36 PM »

I have no problems making some legal arguments but if you think you can stun them into silence, you will be disappointed. You are dealing with hourly collection clerks who drink the company kool-aid.

Also, if you think any average lawyer stepping in will be more effective than some of us "non-lawyers" who have dealt with this head-on, then you have a lot more reading to do.

Maybe one of the lawyers could chime in lol .

thanks for the feedback. Section 5 says you have to have a copyright to seek damages at all it appears. If they are coming at me for actual they will get 0 cuz I made 0 off the image lol.

1487

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: A non-lawyer idea about "The Letter"

« on: May 03, 2012, 08:15:12 PM »

That is all we ask that people make an effort to get themselves up to speed. It can be a daunting and time-consuming job but well worth it. It will serve you well.

Take advantage of the custom Google search bar which is dedicated to searches on the forum itself.  It is better than even the built-in forum software search feature.

Thanks for your prompt reply, and sorry for re-hashing. I'm trying to catch up on all this and there's much learning to do here. I'll search around the forum for some other thoughts I was having about this. Thanks again for all the time and effort you're all putting into this.

1488

Getty Images Letter Forum / ELI Photo Gallery

« on: May 03, 2012, 08:10:52 PM »

I have been inspired by the recent photo postings of the copyright trolls.

I think it's time to launch an ELI Photo Gallery of the copyright trolls and their lawyers.

Some photos that will get posted in the gallery will include :

Lisa Wilmer
Jonathan Klein
The ELI Defense Team (obviously as defenders, not trolls)
Glen Carner (need photos of him)
Vincent Tylor and wife
Masterfile employees
Timothy B. McCormack

I know there are many people I have left out so feel free to help me assembling these photos.

I also have to figure out what software or photo service to easily assemble and upload these photos to.

1489

Hawaiian Letters & Lawsuits Forum / Re: Hawaiian Art Network files 2 more suits

« on: May 03, 2012, 08:03:43 PM »

Hawaiian Art Network Defendants have no idea how generous Mcfilm's offer is. Mcfilms has the distinction of being the only person we know so far who fully negotiated his way out of his extortion letter with full acknowledgment and paying no money. He also shares his real identity and puts his professional reputation on the line over this.

The Hawaiian Art Network defendants need to do their part and think outside of the box and stop playing to traditional lawyer advice. I absolutely think involving mcfilms in the defense would be a game-changer.

If we could get any one of these people hit with HAN suits, to strike back, it would be great. I would be willing to do some spec work  putting together evidence for a counter-suit on deferral for them. I have a strong enough indication that HAN knows damn well that the defendant did not remove the copyright symbol and claiming that they did is an outright lie. I'd like to get to the bottom of who uploaded the images to these "Free Wallpaper" sites. You cannot claim to be the "exclusive representative" of an image AND allow the image to be uploaded to all of these sites. And if you are aware of these wallpaper sites, it is your duty to issue takedown notices.

1490

Hawaiian Letters & Lawsuits Forum / Re: Hawaiian Art Network files 2 more suits

« on: May 03, 2012, 07:58:41 PM »

Stinger,

Can you elaborate more? I wasn't around studying the stock photo industry then.  What was going on?

My recollection is that Getty did that very thing circa 2005 - 2007.

They changed their approach thereafter.  And they have covered their tracks at archive.org

1491

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Newbie to the club

« on: May 03, 2012, 07:54:43 PM »

Again, I like this.  Although, I am not so sure I could muster up a petulant voice given my quiet and demure demeanor. 

This is where you could really make use of a petulant voice, "I don't have time for this. Let me speak to your superior." If you just keep driving this point home and forcing this up the chain of command, I am certain they will back off this. (As long as what you said about the time frame and the use is accurate.)

If it were me I would drive it all the way to get Jonathan Klein on the horn. I would record everything and let them know you were doing so. I would also spend some time reporting what was happening back to TechCrunch. I know the prospect of paying hundreds of dollars for a simple mistake is scary, but you are in the unique position of being able to really have fun* with it.

*If your idea of fun is making the CEO of a copy-troll company clearly define his company policy and either reverse himself or scream his head off at the minion who decided to pursue this non-issue.

1492

Legal Controversies Forum / QP Distribution Book Warehouse Hostage Fight

« on: May 03, 2012, 04:05:46 AM »

In Spring 2011, I was in a bitter fight with book warehousing company, QP Distribution in Mulvane, KS trying to terminate the working relationship. It seemed no matter how nice or cooperative I tried to be, the idiot office manager was determined to make sure she got as much money out of me as possible before I left.

I had all I could withstand when she decided to hold my book inventory hostage. Being nice was not working and she acted like an unempowered employee. I finally got nasty, very nasty and very personal. I went public and contacted the BBB which forced the owner to respond.

I knew the BBB had very little power but I did my best. In the end, the BBB got frustrated with me for standing my ground.  The BBB did not understand that I was not bluffing.  This wasn't a negotiation tactic. I wasn't paying one more dime to QP Distribution nor would I get jerked around with their hidden and unexplained fees.

I actually thought that this fight was going to get uglier after the BBB involvement was over. I was prepared for what I thought might be the next step. But surprisingly, it all went quiet afterwards.

The idiot office manager was never heard from again after the owner got involved. The owner seemed mostly respectful. My biggest beef was his over dealing with her and I let everyone know that she as the one that killed my business off. I learned a hard lesson of not being held hostage by a book warehouse business ever again.

http://www.extortionletterinfo.com/qp-distribution-book-warehouse-hostage/

1493

Legal Controversies Forum / "Incredible Discoveries" Icky Information Page

« on: May 03, 2012, 03:55:30 AM »

In 2007, I was contacted out of nowhere by "Incredible Discoveries", a South Florida infomercial company offering to promote my real estate investing books. It was one of the weirdest experiences I ever had over the phone. It felt very sleazy feel to me and presented by a slick telephone salesman. They had a terrible reputation which I later discovered.

Although, I was never victimized by "Incredible Discoveries", I spoke to a lot of unhappy people. A lot with some venomous things to say.  Some were quite happy to speak with me and offer me leads and information.  There was a ton of legal cases in the Broward County Clerk of Court system which made for very scary and ugly reading.

I feel lucky to have only had a passing encounter with them.  The information I assembled was well-read to the point where an associated company, O2 Media, complained about what I reported and attributed it all to a single, disgruntled employee.  That was entirely nonsense, of course. I could not have gotten so much legal controversial material from one person.

They tried to reach out to me a couple of times but from what I saw in public records, they were not people I wanted anything to do with or would ever trust. It seems at least once a year, someone feeds me information regarding these folks. I must be doing some good because I have gotten quite a few "thank you's " over the years.

Surprisingly, most of the information I found is free and out in the open online in the State of Florida if you knew how to find it.  I got tired of the persistent emails and phone calls asking what I thought. I thought to myself, what a bunch of idiots.  Figure it out yourself! There is more than one infomercial company in this world. Why would anyone let themselves get cold-called and let themselves get sucked into paying someone tens of thousands of dollars over the phone without being checked out?

I got tired of the negative traffic to my personal website so I moved it here to ELI where we discuss copyright trolls and other legal controversies. Again, my experience here in reporting helped the ELI project in 2008.

http://www.extortionletterinfo.com/incrediblediscoveries-info/

1494

Legal Controversies Forum / Cobra Collections Agency Scam in Columbus, Georgia

« on: May 03, 2012, 03:39:17 AM »

In June 2007, after a great deal of frustration with the scamming tactics of a local (Columbus, GA) businesswoman named Janice Ledden who was lying to everyone and ripping her clients off, I decided to launch a website to go after her. She never gave a shit about anyone's threats of a lawsuit so I decided to go after her reputation using publicity.

It made the local TV news and I was swamped with informants dying to give me information to put up on the website.  The local police was nearly useless. The local TV station could only devote very little time to the story. But my website had all the space anyone needed.  She was put out of business inside of 30 days when everyone found out about her scamming and lying ways.

After 5 years, I shut down cobracollectionscam.com but I moved and preserved all the good content, interviews, and TV news videos to ELI.

http://www.extortionletterinfo.com/cobra-collection-agency-scam-information-page/

It was good practice for coming up with a strategy to go up against Getty Images a year later in 2008.

1495

Legal Controversies Forum / Napoleon Hill Foundation Bullies & Attacks MasterMind Forums

« on: May 03, 2012, 03:32:28 AM »

This was one of the earliest fights I had against a copyright troll. They came after me twice before I decided I wasn't going to sit silently anymore having them threatening me behind-the-scenes.

It was prerequisite experience essential to the eventual success of ELI.

http://www.extortionletterinfo.com/napoleon-hill-foundation-dispute-mastermind-forums/

1496

Hawaiian Letters & Lawsuits Forum / Re: Hawaiian Art Network files 2 more suits

« on: May 03, 2012, 02:32:27 AM »

I don't know how well capitalized Glen Carner is in taking up the mantle on these HAN lawsuits. But I am willing to bet, like the P2P/Bittorrent lawsuits, the HAN lawsuits is really designed to force a settlement, not to "go all the way".

It is likely that Glen Carner puts out relatively little money upfront except for the court filing fees and the lawyer "donates" his time to preparing the complaint.  If and when a settlement happens, they split it 60/40 or whatever.

The defendants and their counsel need to be smart and insightful enough to see past the facade.

The fastest way to turn a lawsuit against you into an asset and a legal weapon is to file a counter-suit.  Once that happens, the plaintiff cannot back out even if they want to drop out on their side.

But the defendants have to be informed, smart, aggressive, and courageous enough to take that tact.

1497

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Removing images from web page, hard drive and archive.org??

« on: May 03, 2012, 02:23:21 AM »

You technically don't have to explain your reasons why you want your website taken down. However, I wonder if enough people stated that they are removing themselves from the archive because it is being corrupted by sleazy corporate interests like Getty Images, would they say anything or make a public statement how it is eroding their mission.

Honestly, before all this, I enjoyed having all my websites in the Archive. I have had my own websites since the late 1990's and it was fun going back to see how my work evolved over the years. I forgot a lot of what I did. It was "painful" but also amusing to see the early works.

Getty Images and the stock photo industry are cancers to the Archive.  It is quite unfortunate we have to recommend people removing their past works from the Archive. It really goes against my personal support of their mission to preserve historical views of the Internet.

For what it's worth, I was successful with having archive.org remove my site with an email stating that I was a Getty target. I just had to prove that I owned the domain by emailing them the request from the email listed under the Whois registration contact page.  It took about 4 business days for them to take it down.

1498

Getty Images Letter Forum / Fair Use Argument According to Oscar Michelen

« on: May 03, 2012, 02:15:45 AM »

I have discussed "fair use" with Oscar a few times. I think I am finally understanding what he is saying to me and I am understanding where the line might be.  People are confusing derivative work with fair use.

On ELI, we "get away" with a lot simply because ELI is a commentary, critiquing, editorial, reporting website.  We don't simply post other people's content and material for the heck of it.  We do so for very specific reasons.

For others, ss far as I am concerned, even if there is no fair use argument available, as a practical matter, courts will take a moderate view.  I simply don't believe people will be financially devastated even if you "lose".

Even if someone commits copyright infringement (1-4 images arena), the copyright trolls will have you believe you committed this criminal act where the penalty is tens of thousands of dollars.  To me, I would equate more of a speeding ticket.  Certainly very inconvenient to get one and deal with but not the end of the world. Unfortunately, newbies take extremes.  They either ignore it or they become melodramatic about it.

Oscar Michelen Says:

Fair use is an affirmative defense to copyright infringement and has very limited applications. Most people seem to think that it means that if I am not making any money off the use I can use it.  That is not true.  It must be for a strictly educational purpose or for critique or commentary or to make fun of the copyrighted work (parody). That's it.

Some folks also believe that there is some rule that if you change it by 70% or so that's fair use because you've made it different. This is a complete fiction and the copyright holder usually also owns the rights to make  'derivatives" of his copyrighted material. 

1499

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Newbie to the club

« on: May 03, 2012, 02:03:35 AM »

Very nice customized and high-credibility approach.  I like it. Too bad most of the hourly collection clerks might be too stupid to know any better unless it gets escalated to Lisa Willmer.

How I would handle this:

Explain to them very clearly that this was a development site and was never intended to be public-facing. The images were F.P.O. (for placement only) while you waited for approval. Point them to the video of the Getty CEO stating that they are fine with people using their images in such a way. Tell them you purchase stock footage from stock companies, but you will not be extorted for something the head of their company himself is a legitimate use.

Ask them to please clarify their position. If they insist on continuing on their present course you will have to cease doing business with Getty and their affiliate companies and escalate this issue to the CEO of Getty and ask him to clarify the company's position.

That ought to get everyone over there squirming.

1500

Hawaiian Letters & Lawsuits Forum / Re: Hawaiian Art Network lawsuits in California

« on: May 02, 2012, 09:58:27 PM »

The two new Hawaiian Art Network lawsuits in California have been uploaded. There are more exhibits this time around. Interestingly, Vincent K. Tylor is NOT listed in the legal complaints this time around. I wonder why. Maybe Tylor doesn't want to stick his name out there in public records or be exposed to a possible counter-suit?

Hawaiian Art Network vs. MND Events: Complaint

http://www.scribd.com/doc/92173058/Hawaiian-Art-Network-vs-MND-Events-Complaint

Hawaiian Art Network vs. The Scott: Complaint

http://www.scribd.com/doc/92173102/Hawaiian-Art-Network-vs-The-Scott-Complaint

If I were the defendants, I would look at a counter-suit and start assembling the evidence of how Vincent Tylor "seeds" the Internet with his wallpaper images. Tylor and HAN are enablers. Unlike Getty Images and Masterfile, Tylor and HAN seem to really take advantage on the seeding process.